Stupid With Love
by A Pretty Little Nightmare
Summary: Okay but consider: "we're best friends and I went with you to the hospital to support you during your surgery but when you woke up afterward you were still whacked out on anesthesia and you thought we were dating" AU (modern Shallura)


Allura would do anything for Shiro. As one of his Two Best Friends (Matt's words, not hers), she felt it was her duty. So when he approached both of them to let them know he was having some minor surgery done in a few weeks and he would need a ride, she was happy to assist.

(Matt claimed he had a prior engagement that he couldn't get out of, but something about the way he said it made Allura think he had something else in mind. He always had some ridiculous plan, however unsuccessful, to get the two of them together. It might have been endearing if it didn't wear on her nerves so much.)

Two weeks later, on the day of Shiro's surgery, Allura drove him to the hospital and sat patiently with him in his assigned room, talking with him about whatever mundane topics she could think of to keep him from stressing out. When the doctor came in to bring him to the operating room, they shared one last quick exchange ("You'll be here when I get back?" he'd asked. "I'll be the first person you see," she'd promised.) before he was gone.

A few hours went by, during which she passed the time checking her phone or reading a book, until finally, Shiro returned. As the doctor left the room, Allura made sure to text Keith, Shiro's younger brother, to let him know Shiro was out of surgery. He'd likely just gotten out of class and might want to stop by for a visit. Sure enough, he replied a few minutes later to let her know he was on his way.

Allura locked her phone and breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back in her chair. She would never admit it, but she'd actually been a little worried about today. Of course, he'd probably been much more anxious than her (although she doubted _he_ would ever say as much either), and it was just a brief procedure, but… Shiro was a dear friend, and he meant the world to her, and if anything were to change that…

She didn't know how long she'd been lost in her thoughts, but they were suddenly interrupted when the door creaked open. She rose to her feet to see Keith standing in the doorway. "There you are," she smiled, stealing a glance at her phone. It had been nearly thirty minutes since she'd texted him. "What took you so long?"

Keith opened his mouth to respond when he was pushed aside by three other people entering the room. "Is he up yet? Did I miss anything?" his friend Lance asked loudly. Hunk followed after him, looking mildly amused. Last, and quietest, to enter was Pidge, who also happened to be Matt's little sister.

Allura's eyes widened at the crowd filling up the room, and she gave Keith a look of utter betrayal.

"…I tried to talk them out of it," was all he said in a defeated tone.

Allura heaved a resigned sigh. Then she turned on her heel to face Lance —who seemed downright giddy at the idea of seeing Shiro's reaction to anesthesia— pointed an index finger in his face, and said, with grave seriousness, "Listen to me. Shiro has been stressing about this all week. He's going to be disoriented enough as it is when he wakes up. If you say anything to upset him, you are out of here. Do you understand me?"

Lance's grin shrunk just a little and he nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"So how'd it go?" Hunk asked, taking a seat on the other side of the room.

Allura silently thanked him for being so much more polite in this situation than Lance. "His doctor said everything went fine, and he should be fully recovered in a few days," she answered as she went back to her own chair beside Shiro.

Pidge carefully leaned against the wall between Hunk and Keith. "Well, that's good."

"What was the surgery for, anyway?" asked Lance.

Before Allura could answer, a groggy voice to her left exclaimed, "Heeeeeyyy, everybody's here!"

She instinctively jumped at the sound before turning to face her friend in his bed. "Shiro!" she smiled.

Keith pushed himself away from the wall and stepped forward. "How you feeling?" he asked.

Shiro didn't answer for a few seconds. He blinked very slowly before coming up with a reply of, "…I don't know." Lance snickered in the corner, fumbling to take out his phone as though he couldn't do it fast enough. "Hey, what happened?" Shiro went on, letting his head fall to one side so he was looking at Allura.

She gently touched his shoulder and reminded him, "You just got out of surgery."

He tilted his head. "Have you been here the whole time?"

Allura nodded, trying her best to ignore Lance cursing off to the side that his phone had no room to take a video. ("How many pictures of the sunset do you need?" Pidge asked.)

Shiro let out an exaggerated sigh and gave Allura a soft, unfamiliar look. "You're so good to me, babe."

The room went alarmingly quiet.

 _Wha…_

 _What did he just say?_

Allura giggled in an attempt to hide her sudden discomfort. She'd likely just misheard him— he was delirious, _he_ probably didn't even know what he was saying.

Then Shiro reached for her hand. "I am _ssso_ lucky to have a girlfriend like you," he slurred.

Allura's eyes widened.

"Oh my god," wheezed Lance.

"U-um…" Allura tried to clear her throat. "Shiro, we're… I'm not—"

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Ah-ah-ah," Lance cut in. "You don't want to upset him." Allura's face felt hot. She would have liked nothing more at that moment than to smack that smug look off his face. (She could, too, and everyone in the room knew it.)

"Lance, c'mon," urged Hunk, pulling his friend back.

"Yeah, back off!" Shiro added, which she would have appreciated literally _any other time_ than this. "We're on a date!"

"Shiro," Keith spoke up. Allura could tell he was trying not to laugh, but she knew he meant well, which was more than she could say for a certain Cuban boy in the room. Keith went on, "You're in the hospital."

At this, Shiro did a double-take. Or, he got as close as he could for how spaced out he was. "Oh my god, what happened?!" he asked again, looking shocked.

Allura's heartbeat quickened, and she shrugged Lance's hand away. "N-nothing," she stammered, heading for the door. "Excuse me."

The room fell silent again as she left— that same humiliating, record-scratch type of silence as before. She leaned on the door as it closed and let out a shaky breath.

—

Pidge found her in the bathroom a few minutes later.

She took a quick peek at the bottoms of the stalls to make sure they were all empty as she approached Allura at the farthest sink from the door. "You okay?" she asked gently.

Allura nodded, taking a breath to compose herself. "Sorry for rushing out."

Pidge shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, he didn't seem to notice."

Honestly, it did make her feel just a little better to know that. Allura sighed softly. "How is he?"

"Well," Pidge replied, "Hunk told him you guys aren't actually dating and he started laughing like a maniac, so… I think he'll be alright."

Allura let out a small laugh. At least he wasn't hurt by that shocking revelation.

"…Do you like him?"

Allura's whole body tensed up, though she would have been lying if she said she hadn't expected that question. She avoided Pidge's curious gaze for as long as she could, but eventually that made her just as uncomfortable, so she finally gave a strained reply of, "…Maybe." Almost immediately, she threw her head back and groaned. "But he's my best friend! I don't want to ruin that."

For a moment, Pidge was quiet. Then she took a deep breath and, against her better judgement, told Allura, "Look, I've known Shiro since he and Matt were in tenth grade. He wouldn't say something he didn't mean just to see how someone would react." Then, as a brief aside: "Even if he is out of his mind on painkillers." Allura chuckled. Pidge went on, "Maybe you should just tell him and… see what happens. Once he's lucid, anyway." Again, the two of them were silent. A few seconds passed before Pidge shook her head dismissively. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything—"

"No," Allura cut her off. "You're right… Thank you, Pidge." She gave a warm smile, and her friend's sister sheepishly looked away. With a subtle sense of confidence, Allura put a hand on Pidge's shoulder. "Let's go back. I promised I'd be there for him, after all."

—

When they returned to his room, Shiro was out cold.

"Is he okay?" Allura asked worriedly.

Hunk shrugged. "Yeah. I think he passed out from laughing too hard."

In the corner, Lance broke off his conversation with Keith and walked up to Allura. "You got a second?" he asked. She gave a cautious nod, silently warning him to watch himself. Fortunately, he followed up with an earnest, "Sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

She smiled, relieved. "I know," she assured him. "You only meant to embarrass Shiro."

Lance smirked in reply, "I knew you'd understand," which earned him a good-natured eyeroll from Allura.

Keith stepped forward, pocketing his phone. "Guys, we should head out," he told his friends.

"Aw, come on!" Lance pouted, gesturing to Shiro. "What if he says something amazing?" Keith's response was simply to grab the hood of Lance's jacket and pull him toward the door. "You'll keep me updated, right?" he asked Allura.

She stared at him in silence until he and Keith were in the hallway.

"…Is that a maybe?"

Hunk trailed after them, throwing her a quick wave as he left. When Pidge started to walk past, Allura put a hand on her shoulder. She gave the younger girl a smile and said sweetly, "Tell your brother to start running."

Pidge grinned back, "Gladly," before she made her way out.

The door clicked shut behind the four of them. Allura closed her eyes, letting herself get accustomed to the quiet once more, and exhaled contentedly. She moved back to sit beside Shiro again, propping up an elbow on her leg and resting her chin in her hand as she looked over at him. Without realizing it, she smiled affectionately— unconscious or not, it was the calmest she'd seen him in weeks. Maybe those drugs were good for something after all.

She chuckled at the thought, her gaze slowly falling to the floor.

" _Maybe you should just tell him and… see what happens."_

She knew Pidge was right. Shiro was a good person: even if he didn't return her feelings, Allura doubted that it would actually ruin their friendship… Still… the idea of doing so was more than a little frightening to her…

Again, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, giving an affirming nod for good measure. She would tell him— when the moment was right.

And she was absolutely _not_ going to let Matt know.

She looked back at Shiro, and as if on cue, he woke up, almost immediately making eye contact with her. "You're still here," he smiled. He seemed a bit less disoriented than earlier, but definitely still not all there. (Needless to say, not the right moment.)

Allura returned his fond look. "Just like I said," she reminded him.

Shiro slowly scanned the room. "Did everyone else leave?" Allura nodded. "Good," he sighed. "They were cramping my style."

Allura stifled a laugh. Maybe he was a little more disoriented than she thought. "Is that right?"

Shiro seemed to take offense at her reaction. "Why are you laughing at me? I just lost an arm!"

Okay, now he _had_ to be messing with her. "Are you sure?" she asked, surprising herself with how reasonable she sounded.

With a curious look on his face, Shiro glanced down at his right arm and seemed to nearly jump out of bed when he saw it. "Oh my god!" he exclaimed, turning his hand over in awe. "They put my arm back on?!"

Allura was starting to realize why Lance had been so excited to visit. "The miracle of modern medicine," she shrugged.

Shiro tilted his head back and exhaled loudly in amazement, "Wait until my girlfriend hears about this." Allura barely had time to think, _Does he still mean me?_ , before his eyes landed on her once more. "Oh, hey!" he beamed. "There you are!"

For a moment, Allura froze, considering her next move. But just as quickly, she smiled and took his hand in hers. "Here I am."

— — —

 _3 months later…_

"Did I really say that?"

Allura gave a half-shrug, raising only the shoulder she wasn't using to lean against Shiro. "Something like that," she told him.

Shiro leaned back into the couch and covered his face with his hands. "God, I feel like such an ass," he groaned.

"No, don't!" Allura laughed. "It was… actually kind of sweet."

At first, Shiro didn't reply. Then he lowered one hand from his eyes and looked at her. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" There was no hint of a grudge in his voice— just pure humiliation.

"Because I knew you'd be embarrassed," she answered, followed by a look that suggested, _And was I wrong?_

Shiro's arms fell to his sides and a lazy smile took over his face. "Fair enough."

Allura chuckled. "So you're not mad?"

"You know I'm not."

She touched a hand to his face and smirked, "Just checking," before leaning in to kiss him.

Telling Shiro how she felt about him was the best decision she could have made.

…But there was still no way they were telling Matt.


End file.
